Finishing welt



Get. 19, 1937.. RC, SCHEMMEL 2,096,008

FINISHING WELT Filed Dec. 17, 1934 Patented Oct. 19, 1937 UNITED ySTATESPATENT oFFicE 2 Claims.

My invention relates to finishing welts of the type used in trimmingmotor vehicle bodies, seats, interior wall panels, etc., and moreparticularly provides an improvement in the internal core ele- 5 ment'.for renderingV `the. welt capable of being disposed, around shortlateral curves.

Welts `of the types to which my present inventionis applicable Vhavelong been known. They comp-rise essentially a strip of covering fabricfolded'on itself and include one or more cores used to give body andthickness to the welt. Usually one of the enclosed cores is hinged, bymeans of itscovering or otherwise, to the remain- `der of the weltstructure to adapt the welt to be blind nailed, that is, thehingedportion overlies a base portion through which tacks maybe drivento secure the welt in place and which may be subsequently covered andconcealed by M the hinged core;

The `type of core to which the present improvement has particularapplication is substantially half round or of equivalent shape, that isto say, the core is of greater width thanthickness. This form isrequired by the current style in welts and by the tack concealingfunction of the core just explained. Cores of this shape have been madein a variety of materials. Such cores, and consequently welts includingthem, have been easily eXible in the direction of their shorterdimension., i. e., their thickness, but it has been impossibleto disposesuch welts neatly about lateral curves of short radius. TheV core andthe weltV inwhich it is embodied comprise a somewhat tape-like body`which is obviously easily bendable Sherpa out of the `plane of therape, but which p-uckers and buckles objecticnably when an attemptismade to bend the body around a curved line on a substantially Vplanesurface. Welts of the prior art have `uniformly presented an unsightlyappearance when disposed around Vsuch lateral curves, due to theinherent tendency` of the relatively wide, thin body to pucker andbuckle in its curved portion, and have required considerable skill andentailed much loss of time on the part ofthe operator in attempting tomake the installation as neat as possible. l The industry has madenumerous attempts to correct the above described defect, and theseattempts have thus far been only indifferently'suc- 50 cessful. In myUnited states Patent No. 1,857,877 of May` l0, 1932, I describe a weltcore formed of stranded material braided together or equivalentlyassociated to provide a body of independ ent elements capable of slightrelatively sliding movement on each other. The construction there `afinishing welt including a covering fabric and shown is capable of beingdisposed in lateral curves of comparatively short radiusv because onlateral bending the several strands move on each other, the body openingup more or less, and thelstranded elements accommodating themselves 5 tothe respective conditions of tension and compression obtainingrespectively at the outside and inside edges of the curved portion ofthe body.

`My present invention is an improvement on my patented braided strandconstruction, and le* by the present invention I provide a welt core anda welt made therefrom capable of being disposed around lateral curves ofvery much shorter radius. The ideal, which is probably unattainable, isa welt which can be disposed in substantially a lateral right angle. Mypresent invention provides a welt which approaches this ideal as closelyas any automobilev trimming constructions require. Not only is aninstallation of welt made according to the present invention 20 veryconsiderably neater in appearance, but the v installation may bev madein an appreciably shorter time because little skill is required on thepart of the workman to` minimize unsightly puckering about the curve. Y25 The invention will now be explained in a preferred form ofembodiment, reference being made to the attached drawing which formspart` of this application for Letters Patent and in which:

Figure l is a perspective view of a core body;

Fig. 2 is a perspective view on a relatively enlarged scale of acomplete welt of one form of construction including the improved core;

Fig, 3 is a plan view of a laterally curved length of welt showing thecover broken away at the 5 bend; and

Fig. 4 is a plan view of an alternative form of core.

The invention, broadly considered, comprises a core. The lattercomprises a body made up of twisted sheet .material, and the body isbroken at intervalsalong its; edges. I have found that this brokencondition of the edges permits the body material to undergo a highdegree of rear- 45 rangement, both in itself and with relationto thecovering fabric, when the body is laterally bent, as will be explainedhereinafter.

In the drawing I show a core body I made up of compactly twisted sheetmaterial. The material is preferably paper or the like, provided in asingle strip or a plurality of superposed strips. The material istwisted helically on itselfand compacted and formed to provide arelatively dense and comparatively hard body having a fairly smoothsurface, somewhat like the well known twisted paper twine or cord. Thebody is in any suitable manner reduced to any desired cross-sectionalshape, preferably the comparatively flat, half round form generally usedin welt constructions, Of course the specific shape of the core isimmaterial, being governed by the style of the Welt which is to be made,the function which the core portion is to discharge, and otherconsiderations. y

In Fig. l the core body is shown slotted at a plurality of points 2, andin Fig. 4 the core body is shown slitted at a plurality of points 3. In

both cases the edges of the body are broken at intervals; in Fig. 1 asmall amount of material is removed from the body where it isbrokenfandin Fig. 4 the body is cut merely but no'material is removed. In bothcasesV I prefer to dispose the breaks along both sides of the body invstaggered relationship, and in each case the breaks enter from a sideedge of the body and extend well toward the median line thereof. I Y YThe core is suitably enclosed in a strip ofl covering fabric 4.Substantially any-type of fold may be used, and a plurality of ccrebodies may be employed to give any desired welt construction. To enhancethe lateral flexibility of the welt I prefer to use the fabric known-ascoach lace, or any other textile material not doped or coated inimitation of leather.

Preferably the core is secured inthe fabric by a cement which, protectedsubstantially from the air, has the property of`remainingtacky for aconsiderable period of time. Lines 'of stitching 5 are used to maintainthe covering fabric permanentlyin its enclosed relation with the coreaccording to well understood practice.

The completed welt, shown in Fig' 2, may be disposed around a lateralcurveV of-heretofore unattainably short radius. As shown in Fig. 3, whenso bent, the longitudinal sections of the core body separate where thebody is broken along the outer edge of the curve, and crowdY togetherwhere it isv broken along the inner edge of the curve. Heretofore mostof the difculty has been experienced with the inside ofthe curve, wherethe new, decreased length of the edge has been insuficient toaccommodate all of the core material there presented. By my improvedconstruction the short sections of body material along the inner edge ofthe curveundergo considerable shortening, responsive to the compressiveforces imposed upon them, and in addition, the ends of the shortlengthsof body penetrate each other somewhat. This, penetration actionis facilitated by the twisted construction of the body, 1 which opens upat the breaks along the inside curve providing enough looseness in theends of each short body section to accommodate entrance of the vopposedsection. It is likely thatralong the inside of the curve the compressedand shortened lengths of core body increase somewhat .inithickness atthe ends of the lengths or sections of core body, due perhaps to theexpansive separation of the plies of sheet materialV consequent upon therelease of twisting stress at the breaks. Such increase in corethicknessV is not, objectionable, inasmuch as it occurs Within and isconcealed by the covering fabric 4. VVThe effect is to render the endwalls of each core section or length yielding or soft, so thatcompressibility of the individual of core body of course undergoes noelongation or contraction in the process of bending. The outer edge ofthe curve is elongated, and this elongation is permitted andaccommodated by the breaks in the outer edge, which widen so that thereis no tendency for the outer edge of the body to move in toward themedian line and buckle the welt.

It will be understood of course that the crowded inside edge and theopened breaks in the outside edge of the core body are fully concealedby the covering fabric 4. The opened breaks in the outer edge arecollectively so numerous and individually so narrow that suicientsupport and foundation are'given the covering fabric by the body and the.external appearance of the covering fabric' remains smooth.

As heretofore indicated, two forms of break are shown. It is preferableto employ the slotted or kerfed break shown in Fig. 1 where the corebody is relatively wide or the turn is unusually short. Theslittedrbreak shown in Fig. 4 may be used where the core body isrelatively narrow or the turn is not exceptionally short. Both types ofbreak, however, .give-to the core body in which they are provided amaterially increased ability to be disposed neatly around short lateralcurves.

Most welts are applied once only in their permanent position on a motorvehicle body or the like. There is practically never any occasion toremove and replace them. The type of cement which I prefer to useremains tacky much longer than the average time intervening betweenmanufacture of the welt and its installation.Y Hence, this type ofcement cooperates with the basic features of my inventionby permittingthe component parts of the core to slide relatively to the coveringfabric during their automatic rearrangement as the Welt is curved.Subsequent slow drying and hardening of the cement securely bonds theseparts together in theirA new arrangement and securely fixes the coveringfabric to the modied disposition of, the core. The ultimate result is acomplete welt whose elements are securely and permanently bondedtogether much as though they had been initially fabricated in curvedform.

There is a distinct advantage in making the covering fabric of coachlace or some similar unstiffened textile fabric because such materialmore Vreadily and neatly accommodates itself to bending than does adoped fabric like imitation leather or the like, probably because theconstituent threads of my preferred fabric are to a considerable degreefree to slide on each other and thus rearrange themselves under thebending stresses and because there is no hard, unyielding coating tocrack or lock the threads together.

It is believed that the essence of the invention will be clear from theforegoing. It is to be distinctly understood that the style or type ofwelt is immaterial, one only being selected in this disclosure toillustrate the invention. The invention is capable of embodiment in verymany forms and constructions, and all such modifications, to

Ythe extent that they embody the principles of the invention as definedin the appended claims, are to be deemed Within the scope and purviewthereof.

I claim:

1. A finishing welt including a flexible fabric covering and an internalcore comprising a body of tightly twisted fibrous sheet material, eachside edge-of the body being broken at intervals to form short lengths ofbody material between the breaks whereby the Welt may be disposed inlateral curves of short radius without objectionable puckering orbuckling, the walls of the body at said breaks becoming relativelyyielding by expansive separation of the' plies of sheet materialconsequentgupon release of twisting stress at said breaks, the breaksalong the dutside of the curve being adapted to widen and the shortlengths of body material along the inside of the curve being adapted tobecome compressed, all within and concealed by the covering fabric.

2. A nishing welt as claimed in claim 1, including a coating ofslow-drying adhesive securing the covering fabric to the core, saidadhesive being adapted to permit rearrangement of the material in thecore and of the core body with relation to the covering fabric when theWelt is bent around a short curve and thereafter to set slowly, xing thewelt elements in their new relationships.

ROBERT C. SCHEMMEL.

